Hi all - any recommendations for cable supplier in Calgary (need TV, phone & Internet).

I've priced Telus and Shaw, Shaw seem cheaper but then Telus has the Optik TV, is this worth having?

Are there any others?

Any advice would be welcome (service reliability, customer service, pricing etc).

Thanks,

Stuart

If high speed internet is a priority for you Shaw is the rigth one to go. It is the only company offering 100 mbps for download and very soon offering 250 mbps. They offer a good quality-price mix.

high speed internet isn't a huge driver for me, I think I got about 7mpbs in the UK and that was fine.

I'm really after the best 'all round' package.

Thanks.

One other difference is that Telus work on fixed term contracts whereas with Shaw you can cancel at any time (at least, this is the case in the Vancouver area). This can be a big plus for Shaw.

I'm with Shaw have been since I moved to Calgary 37 years ago. I won't push one or the other but do know that Telus is usually a 3 year contract if you want any of their deals.

Shaw has no contracts, you can cancel any time.

Shaw announced earlier this summer that they will be rolling out something very similar to Optic TV.

http://techtipsandtoys.wordpress.com...te-with-telus/

Edit: I see JonboyE beat me to the contract issue.

Thanks for the replies all.

After looking at the link I reckon I'll go with Shaw and upgrade to the 'Gateway' once all the bugs have been ironed out!

So as a new resident, how does this work, simply sign-up on-line and wait for an install date?

Thanks.

We have always been with Shaw. When we arrived we tried to sign up by telephone and found it a complete nightmare. In the end we went to their location and got it all sorted very quickly.

Looking back we may have been expecting English levels of service (call them and they attend the next day sort of thing) which doesn't exist over here.

We use TELUS for our cell phones (4 of them) and have never had issues with either Shaw of TELUS.

Just called Shaw and their Gateway service is available from August 15th in Okotoks,

Had a look at Optik TV in the local Telus shop and wasn't to impressed to be honest. Plus the girl couldn't even tell me if the service was available at my address. And don't even bother with the TELUS Webpage to order anything , I just keep getting the message " Sorry. We could not determine availability "
and this as been for over 2 weeks now .

Had Starchoice, which is now Shaw, was a nightmare and would never touch them again. Had others for phone and Internet as well, went back to Telus. The more services you have with Telus the cheaper it gets. You can choose fixed term contracts and get free stuff or pay month by month. We have satellite TV though Telus (which is Bell, but you don't have to deal with Bell customer service) and it is fine. Telus did the installation, added new phone jacks for every TV all at no charge. The service we have had from Telus has never been a problem.

Been up to the Shaw office in Calgary and got what I think is a fair deal:

Extreme Broadband (25mbps)
Phone - with 1000 international minutes
TV with 1x Motorola HD box and 1x Motorola PVR (500GB)
- Movies Package
- Entertainment
- Family
Free installation

6 months at $69 (+$10 for the pvr on easy pay)

After 6 months $119 (+$10 for the pvr on easy pay)

Thanks for your help

I have Shaw, the thing that pisses me off is that you have to buy your own cable box and they aren't cheap, you could buy a PC for the price of the latest one. Which is exactly what I did, just run the cable box into a media PC with a HD capture card in it, then you can download the TV directly onto the PC and you don't have to worry about how many hours you can save and so on.

It's not for the computer novice, I grant you, but it gives you far more flexibility and you're not dependent on Shaw or Telus for upgrades. But starting from scratch you still have to buy a pricey PVR before you can buy a PC, it only means you don't have to buy the latest model later on.

I think we paid $349 for the 500GB Motorola PVR, granted a lot of cash but money is leaving my wallet so fast at the moment another few hundred won't make that much difference (also it was on the easy-pay at $10 per month for the next 36 months).

The standard Motorola HD box was free line rental.

One thing I did like is that its a lifetime warranty on the equipment as long as you have services with them.

As a new resident I'm sure I'll make some mistakes along the way, so far though things have worked out slightly cheaper than I budgeted for which is a bonus!